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  Today Online 7 Feb 07
Will Asia heed warning of Jakarta's Katrina?
Mely Caballero-Anthony

JUST a few days back, Indonesia declared a state of emergency as it battled the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus.

Now, Jakarta is on high alert again as it struggles to cope with floods brought on by torrential rains. Images of submerged houses and vehicles and of people wading through chest-deep water have once again highlighted the horrendous plight of individuals and communities in disaster-stricken areas.

Almost 340,000 people have been rendered homeless as a result of the floods, with many being swept away by strong currents, and some dying from electrocution.

The crisis brings back memories of the havoc wreaked by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005, when the levees that were meant to prevent waters from rushing into the city burst.

More than a thousand people died, half a million had their lives disrupted and it became clear that even in the world's richest country, the authorities were completely unprepared for the disaster that engulfed them.

Time magazine remarked that: "Katrina was on the cards, forewarned, foreseen and yet still dismissed until it was too late. That so many officials were caught so unprepared was a failure less of imagination than will."

It is clear from this that humanitarian emergencies often stem from the failure of disaster-response systems.

Is Asia doing enough?

Major natural disasters often occur in Asia. But are states doing enough to protect their people from the risks and emergencies that come with these disasters?

The 2006 Global Risks Report that was released at the last year's World Economic Forum is instructive.

The report ranked pandemics and natural disasters as among the highest in the list of risks currently confronting the international community.

More importantly, the report observed that despite these multiple global risks and their combined ripple effects, which can be potentially devastating, "disaster planning and crisis management suffer from a number of shortcomings".

Among these are limited investments of resources in health systems and varying responses to different assessments of threats. These observations certainly reflect what has been happening in South-east Asia.

With memories of the devastation wrought by the 2004 earthquakes and tsunami still fresh, one would have expected authorities in the region to be more vigilant to the possibility that similar disasters could occur again.

But there appears to be little evidence of this vigilance being translated into more decisive action.

The recent cases of floods and landslides across the region, brought on by heavy rainfall, have seen the affected countries--the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia--struggle to provide immediate disaster assistance, particularly to victims in remote areas where poor infrastructure has hindered basic supplies and health services from reaching them in good time.

With climatic conditions changing, it is imperative to raise the level of disaster-preparedness in these countries. One need not wait for calamity to strike before nationwide responses are switched to emergency mode.

As images of natural disasters unfold, captured vividly by television cameras, the unfortunate lag in response time often results in unnecessary loss of lives and human misery.

No time to lose

The latest floods in Jakarta proved to be another example of such delayed reaction, stemming from inertia in crisis management.

In December last year, one could have argued that the devastating floods that laid waste to many parts of the Malaysian state of Johor could also happen to Jakarta, given the spate of torrential rains occurring at this time of the year.

Moreover, given recent experiences of similar inundation in 2002 that engulfed parts of Jakarta, and taking into consideration the city's poor drainage system, it would have been logical for Indonesia to reassess its strategy in preparing for such disasters.

Instead, it is clear that assistance was delayed and evacuation did not go smoothly. Indonesia must rethink its national strategies for disaster mitigation or risk reduction.

The same applies to other countries in the region that face the same problems annually, or even several times in a year.

As more reports and studies are released about the looming threats of climate change, it may help to examine which particular risks must be treated as priorities and to assess the institutional capacity to support these strategies.

These would include assessing whether there are sufficient regional mechanisms and strategies to complement national measures.

The author is an Assistant Professor at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies and coordinator, Consortium of Non-Traditional Security Studies in Asia, Nanyang Technological University
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